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Thursday, 12 November 2015

Wanderings Lately :: November

This fortnight my wanderings have been many and fairly varied. I began the two weeks temping at a language school near Holborn, working only in the mornings and enjoying my last couple of weeks before jumping back into full time work. I then started my new job this week, and so far am really enjoying it. The people are exceptionally nice and I feel like I've slotted in well straight away which is great. The first few weeks are my induction, learning all the procedures and promptly forgetting many people's names. I've been at home a lot less so boring jobs like washing and food shopping have taken a hit, so it'll take a while to get back into a routine but that's something I'm very much looking forward to!

Eating

After our chocolate disaster, we all met for drinks at Hawker House, which is being held really near my house. A bit of a hipster place - street food stalls and an over priced bar but great fun at the same time. As Jasmin and I had eaten just before we got there we didn't really eat anything so we're heading back this Friday (celebration of my first week at work) to sample some of the food. It was Halloween which is why we're wearing some homemade 'costumes' for anyone who, like me, doesn't get the jokes the hat is a 'party animal' and the glasses 'eye candy'...

Lunch and Dinner

Whilst I was off I met a few friends for lunch. Siobhan works at City Hall so I got a sneak peek into the lobby/cafeteria there and we explored this cool floor map of London. It doesn't go quite as far out as my house in Essex, but my Nan's house was on there in Loughton!

I met my Sister-in-law for dinner last week, where we went upmarket and had dinner at the Four Seasons. We had a deal through 'book a table' so it was on a deal but the food was suitably delicious, the restaurant fancy and the cocktails tasty (but over priced)

Anniversaries

This month has my favourite 'festival', Bonfire Night. Although it's only one night, and really only tentatively a festival or celebration, I really love going to watch fireworks. When I was little this was a freezing cold night where you'd be wearing gloves and you could see your breath, so now that it's positively balmy weather it's lost a little of it's sheen. I spent my time teaching students about Bonfire Night when I was abroad, and in doing so learnt a lot more about the actually story behind it. The last couple of years I've not managed to actually get to a fireworks display, but this year I noticed that Victoria Park had re-introduced their free display I dragged Jasmin along to watch it with me. It was also quite significant for us, as we met, through our mutual friend Macey, at the same display 7 years ago. We'd never have guessed all those years ago that we'd become much better friends in the future but it was nice to share that moment again this year and celebrate our 'friend-iversary'

I also realised this week that I've been a Facebook user for 9 years this month. One of my favourite apps is timehop, which lets you look over your social media posts for the same day in years past. I like to look at this every day and see what I was up to one, two, three etc years ago. Sometimes I don't have anything much, but other times I get a little reminder of past events. It can also startle you when a photo of an ex-boyfriend pops up unannounced! This was from my friend Hannah at university and the first person to write me a message on my wall - a feature that I think they may have taken away now.

Accomplishments

This fortnight I finished my 'Winter' cross stitch. I've been working on this for quite a long time, since I tend to go in stages of either working on it a lot and to then ignoring it for ages. I've now completed 'Spring', 'Summer' and 'Winter' and will begin work on 'Autumn' very soon. Once I've got a full set I'm going to try and make them into something worthwhile, probably a cushion.

As I mentioned in the intro, I started my new job this week and on my first day I had to travel from my main office in Bloomsbury to our other base in West London. Gloucester Road tube station looked lovely in the dusk light and I loved the old signage of metropolitan railway on the side so I snapped a quick photo. Although I rarely travel to West London, I enjoyed wandering around the streets this day, taking in the typical 5 storey London town houses and wide streets around the station.

Lastly I spotted this sign recently which made me smile and it reads:

'On your 100th birthday, you'd be disappointed if the Queen only sent you an email,'

So true! I think technology is great and has made it so easy to communicate and keep in contact with people we would usually have lost touch with very quickly in the past. However, I still love to send and even better, receive proper mail through the post. So keep on sending! :-)

::This week I'll be enjoying food at Hawker House, spending the day with my church on Saturday and getting all Christmassy with my mum this Sunday in Essex! What plans do you have in store? ::